The questions that matter most

1. How soon can you see me?

Pain after a crash often peaks one to three days later, and the first two weeks matter most. Our answer: same-day visits are often available for accident patients. Call 801-373-1035.

2. Will you take flexion-extension X-rays or motion X-ray?

This is the question most people don’t know to ask, and it matters most. A stretched or torn ligament is one of the crash injuries most often missed, because the extra movement it allows only shows when the spine bends. ER X-rays are taken with you holding still to rule out a fracture, so the injured level can look normal. Our answer: yes. We take static X-rays and X-rays with your neck or back bent forward and bent back, usually at the first visit, and we measure how far each vertebra slides and tips compared with the levels next to it, using the criteria in the AMA Guides, the standard insurers and courts use. We also offer motion X-ray (DMX), a video of your spine as it moves, done and read in our office.

3. Will you order an MRI if I need one, and read it yourselves?

X-rays and MRI go hand in hand. They show different things: X-rays show alignment and how each vertebra moves; an MRI shows the discs, nerves, ligaments and other soft tissue. Correlating the two is how the damaged tissue, and what is causing your pain, gets found. Reading MRI images isn’t part of standard chiropractic training, so most chiropractors work from the radiologist’s written report alone. Our answer: yes to both. When your exam or X-rays point to a disc, nerve or ligament injury, we order an MRI. Then our doctors, trained in MRI interpretation through their fellowship, read the actual images themselves, along with the radiologist’s report, and put them together with your static and flexion-extension X-rays and your exam. That is what gives an accurate diagnosis, and it lets us tell you whether a finding is likely from the crash or was there before. If you already have an MRI, we read that too.